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A young person from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly vandalizing a large blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, participated remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of property damage.

In a statement at the moment of the September incident, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which locals have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.

Ms Vanderhorst made no plea and told the judge she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the judge recommending her to secure a legal representative before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

The following day the reported event, the local mayor said that repairs to the popular community sculpture would be costly as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without harming the art piece.

“This intentional vandalism to a cherished community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin remarked in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is pricey - it is also disappointing to those members of our community who have embraced the Blue Blob.”

She added the local government would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the damage.

At the time the sculpture was first proposed, it drew mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and design.

Priced at A$136,000 (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.